pa1778data.pdf

•U.S. STEEL DUQUESNE WORKS
HAER No. PA-115
(Page 75)
process originally took place at the BOP shop where the contents
of "submarine" ladle cars from the blast furnaces were reladled
into open top ladles before the iron was manually desulphurized.
The time taken to desulphurize the iron in this manner resulted
in a significant drop in the temperature of the molten bath,
thereby increasing the oxygen blowing time at the furnace. Under
the new system, the "submarine" cars were taken directly from the
cast house to the desulphurization building where they were
spotted under one of the facility's two fume hoods. A lance
transfer car, riding on rails on the second floor of the
building, was positioned at the fume hood where its lance was
inserted down through a hood opening into the top opening of the
"submarine" car. Calcium carbide was then drawn from a 220-ton
silo located next to the building and blown through the bath.
The resulting fumes from the blow were directed through the hood
to a bag house attached to the western wall of the building where
the particulate was filtered out before the gasses were exhausted
to the atmosphere through a nearby stack. After the process was
complete, the resulting slag was skimmed off the bath and
"submarine" cars were taken to the BOP shop. Because the
-^ "submarine" ladles also acted as mixers, the temperature of the
^p bath remained constant. Consequently, the blowing period at the
oxygen furnace was decreased. 7
ENDNOTSS:
l.J. M. Camp and C. B. Francis, The Makingf Shaping, and
Treating of Steelf Fourth Edition, (Pittsburgh: 1924), 204 - 06;
William T. Hogan, Economic History of the Iron and Steel Industry
in the United States, Volume Two, (Lexington: 1971), 391 - 93; K.
A. Uehling, "Advantages of Sandless Pig Iron," The Iron Trade
Review 31 (March 3, 1898): 14 - 16; J. M. Camp and C. B. Francis.
The Making. Shaping and Treating of Steel, Sixth Edition,
(Pittsburgh: 1951), 292, 730; Bruce Shields, former Chief
Metallurgist at the Duquesne Works and Director of Metallurgical
Engineering for the United States Steel Corporation, interviewed
by author, March 3, 1990.
2."The Duquesne Furnace Plant of the Carnegie Steel Company
Limited," The Iron Age 59 (March 25, 1897): 8, 9; "The Duquesne
Furnaces of the Carnegie Co., Ltd.," The Iron Trade Review 30
(March 25, 1897): 10; "The Duquesne Furnace Record," The Iron Age
29 (September 10, 1896): 492; "A Duquesne Blast Furnace Record,"
The Iron Age 77 (April 12, 1906): 1261.
3."The Duquesne Furnace Plant," 9; Gary B. Kulik, "Sloss-
Sheffield Steel & Iron Company Furnaces," (Unpublished Paper
prepared for the Historic American Engineering Record, 1976): 5;